Minister slammed for ‘cold’ stance on social housing eligibility

Housing Minister Sam O’Connor has been slammed for his stance on social housing eligibility, threatening to push vulnerable working households into the tough private rental market.

Shadow Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said Sam O’Connor’s call to keep the current income thresholds for social housing eligibility was “cold”.

Housing Minister Sam O’Connor has been slammed as “cold” for rejecting proposals to increase outdated income thresholds for social housing eligibility, threatening to push vulnerable working households into the tough private rental market.

A single mother with two children would be ineligible for social housing if her annual income including superannuation was more than $45,604 a year – or a weekly take home pay at $702.55 per week.

The social housing threshold has remained unchanged since 2006, and today that annual threshold would be worth more than $73,600, following average inflation growth of 2.7 per cent.

Queensland Minister for Housing Sam O’Connor on Monday. Picture: Tertius Pickard

Mr O’Connor said the government would focus instead on chasing up tenants who were exploiting the system, after it was revealed a household earning more than $200,000 remained in social housing while paying $190 in weekly rent.

“It’s not on my agenda (increasing thresholds) for the foreseeable future,” Mr O’Connor said.

“We have enough of a challenge with the current wait list and getting the build program up to what it should be.”

He said 52,000 people on the social home waiting list were eligible for a home under current thresholds, as the government centred on providing a home for “genuinely vulnerable” Queenslanders.

Mr O’Connor said the government did not know how many tenants were living beyond the thresholds.

There was missing data for 45 per cent of the social housing tenants.

But he accused some tenants of rorting the system by accessing homes or crisis hotel stays closer to beachfronts and claiming they were homeless.

He accused the former Labor Government of delaying implementing Queensland Audit Office recommendations in 2022 which urged for regular reviews of the income threshold, leading to lack of accountability within the housing system.

The recommendations included ongoing eligibility of social housing applicants and updating the register when needed, while uncontactable applications should not appear on the social housing register.

Q Shelter chief executive Fiona Caniglia said the national social housing system was facing the burden of decades without enough investment in affordable developments.

She called on the state government to increase social housing investment in the June 24 State Budget.

Fiona Caniglia from Q Shelter called on the state government to increase social housing investment. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“We are understandably concerned that the review may push some existing public housing tenants into an extremely tight and unaffordable rental market, which may in turn cause them to seek help from the funded system at other access points,” Ms Caniglia said.

Opposition Housing spokeswoman Meaghan Scanlon said there was a stark contrast between the housing market 18 years ago compared to today’s market, increasing the vulnerability for single mothers.

Shadow Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon. Picture: Josh Woning

“And I think it’s pretty cold that he’s saying he’s not going to review this eligibility,” Ms Scanlon said.

“Sam O’Connor’s clearly just focused on that (social housing) list not getting bigger.”

Ms Scanlon said the former Labor government intended on reviewing income eligibility and had conducted two separate reviews to ensure that safe housing was accessible to every Queenslander.

Ms Scanlon said these reviews took time and needed genuine consultation from groups such as Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS).